here is what I did, which seems to be working. I have one comment however, like others have noted every pool is different and what may work for me may not for you.

My pool is a liner pool 6x3m in the ground type.

I firstly supercclorinated it and left the pump running overnight. This made it blue but cloudy. then I sampled the water and raised the PH, with all the extra chlorine this will of course be low. I added enough chemicals to raise it from 7 ( normally at 7.4) up to 7.8.

ran the pump for about 4 hours then stopped the pump, put it manual and added flocculant. Left overnight, woke up to find I could see the bottom of the pool and lots of debris on the bottom.

Hoovered, a good backwash and its looking fine now, just a bit of tweaking to do and it will be perfect.

No I am no expert I have learned about my pool from making my own mistakes but what I would like to pass on is don't panic.

I have read all the posts on this subject and I have taken relevant pieces of information from everyone elses posts to help my particular situation.

LIKE EVERYONE I HAVE SPENT A TON OF MONEY BACKING THE CAR UP TO THE POOL STORE WHERE THE EXPERTS FILL THE TRUNK.WHEN THE POOL HAS GREEN STAIN ON THE WALLS, I AM SOLD METAL OUT AND STAIN B GONE ( CITRIC ACID ) TO REMOVE THE STAIN, CL LEVEL MUST BE VERY LOW FOR THIS TO WORK. THE STAIN GOES AWAY, HOWEVER, THE WATER BECOMES CLOUDY, CLOUDY WATER GOES AWAY AS SOON AS GREEN STAIN APPEARS, EVERY STORE TELLS ME THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH FIBERGLASS POOLS.. YOU CAN HAVE CLOUDY OR STAINED, ITS ONE OR THE OTHER.

I have been fighting this problem for a month!!! Same as others- take a sample, buy a lot of chemicals and no difference,
This time 400ml of acid in each deep end corner, after shutting off pool for 10 min.,wait 5 minutes turn onn. THen vacuum and putin 10L of liquid chlorine, one hour later 1 bottle of metal free because copper had gone to 3 because of all the algicide(ERASE) that had gone in previous.(las night at 8 oclock)
Previous to the above)Have drained pool to the bottom of skimmer while vacuumming at waste 2 times previous.
This morning it is NO clearer!!!and I can smell the chlorine. HAvent backwashed yet.
The ph is 7.8 Acid 2 Total 1.5 Free 0
T>A> 125 C.H. 130
The pool people want the cloudiness to cleR THEN WE WILL WORYY ABOUT ADJUSTING THE ABOVE.
Please help.

We are having the worst problem ever with our pool this year. We cannot get the water to go from a very light green to crystal clear blue as it has in past years. We have done everything and when we take the sample to the pool store - they test it, and say that everything looks great!! If that is the case - why won't it turn blue? We have spent so much money on this pool, and have done everything humanly possible to clear it up and it still doesn't work. Does anyone have any suggestions.

It is a 19,000 gallon pool. If I add a whole bottle of Clarifier will it hurt the levels, ph, alkalinity, etc.? We are at our wits end with it and about ready to stop trying.

DUMMY wrote:LIKE EVERYONE I HAVE SPENT A TON OF MONEY BACKING THE CAR UP TO THE POOL STORE WHERE THE EXPERTS FILL THE TRUNK.WHEN THE POOL HAS GREEN STAIN ON THE WALLS, I AM SOLD METAL OUT AND STAIN B GONE ( CITRIC ACID ) TO REMOVE THE STAIN, CL LEVEL MUST BE VERY LOW FOR THIS TO WORK. THE STAIN GOES AWAY, HOWEVER, THE WATER BECOMES CLOUDY, CLOUDY WATER GOES AWAY AS SOON AS GREEN STAIN APPEARS, EVERY STORE TELLS ME THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH FIBERGLASS POOLS.. YOU CAN HAVE CLOUDY OR STAINED, ITS ONE OR THE OTHER.

DUMMY

I have had a fiberglass pool for 6 years and love it. Twice I have had the problem you describe -- both times I used too much copper to kill algee followed too quickly by too much shock. A really GOOD pool person will give you the Exact instruction on what to put in, how much, how long to wait, what goes in next... It is exspensive but works.

Keep the copper down helps. leaving Days between copper and shock helps too.

If the copper is going from the water to the walls and back again, there is just too much copper. It has to be trapped somehow. Is the fill water high in copper?? Do you have copper in the plumbing?? I really don't think this has a thing to do with fiberglass -- 95% of the time I just have a pool that is much easier to mantain.

Smart Shopper wrote:Try Baking Soda...stores charge a small fortune for ph down...read the box..it's sodium bicarbonate..a/k/a/ BAKING SODA...buy store name brand..4 lb box less than 2 bucks...cast entire four pounds into pool...non toxic...can swim at the same time...next day cast another 4 lb box...it worked for me....

Baking soda is for PH UP... I think. Acid is for down. But you are right is really better quality than PH+, and cheaper.

I agree that I will never use flock again. Used it a couple years ago, hated it. My pool is cloudy this year too. Been opened for about 2 and a half weeks and still cloudy. Ph is normal, Alk is normal, stabilizer is normal. Chlorine readings are low most of the time, except RIGHT after we shock it. Filter is running 24/7 right now until this is cleared up, chlorinator is working, dissolving tablets at a normal rate. Today the pool was clearer than it has been yet, so maybe we are getting a handle on it. At least I can see the middle drain this morning. We've also had the pool for 14 years. To everyone that's having cloudy problems, I just say be diligent about checking chem levels and vac even if you can't see the bottom.

Using Trichlor pucks/tabs or Dichlor powder/granular when you have cloudy water most likely due to a high Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level with not a high enough Free Chlorine (FC) level is only going to make the problem worse. Read the Pool School for more info on the chlorine/CYA relationship. In a manually dosed pool, if your FC is maintained at a minimum of 7.5% of the CYA level (certainly no less than 5% of the CYA level), then the pool is at high risk of having algae grow faster than chlorine can kill it.

Ok So my levels- chlorine is a little high (added stabilizer so its staying consistent), Had a hard time lowering alkalinity but finally did it. Ph is also a little lower than it should be, between perfect and low.Water is a nice blue color but cloudy. Can see second step, Its an above ground vinyl pool,Have done floc twice, second time was last night, and its even cloudier today. Been reading all these posts and decided to take out chlorine floater, and just leave the pool for the rest of the day, I dont know how quickly the chlorine will drop or if the floc will make anything settle, But im trying as many free options as possible before putting anymore money into the pool.

Want to know more options that apply to me incase this doesnt work. I dont really feel like reading 50 pages of do this do that but only if your levels are this that and the other.